Shattering Glass
by iyoku-ishi
Summary: Is immortality really mankind's most desired wish? There are those who want it, those who don't, and those who simply don't care. Throw in a Lord Knight, an un-priestly High Priest, and a crazy love triangle to obtain the ultimate adventure.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Ragnarok Online or anything that belongs to it. I do, however, own the characters in this fanfiction, as well as some self-made concepts.

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This fanfiction starts out humorously, but will become more serious later on. Please note that a lot of things in Ragnarok Online will be changed so that they can be more realistic. For example, some potions that need an ingredient such as fabric will have it taken out. The concept of slotted weapons and carding will also be taken out - instead, equipment will be enchanted (so, instead of a headgear slotted with a stormy knight card, there will be headgears enchanted with stormy knight). I won't list all the things changed, as I think that it is unnecessary. Please note that job classes will be capitalized, but normal nouns will not (ex. "Priest" versus "priest").

**Important: **In this world, a person in a certain job class can still learn one or two weak skills from another job class. However, those skills should correspond to the person's greatest "stats". For example, a Priest would be able to learn mage spells because both classes use magic in their main skills, whereas an assassin would have a hard time learning magical spells.

Monster locations will also be changed, so skeletons may show up outside of Prontera. As well, there will be added locations.

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**S h a t t e r i n g \ \ G l a s s**

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Chapter #1 - _Exterminating Pests._

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Rays of sunlight reflected off of the girl's armor as she sprinted out of her apartment building, barely remembering to lock the door. The female hurriedly pulled on her armored gloves, attempting to fasten them while running towards her destination. Unfortunately, one of the clasps of her gloves undid itself, which resulted in the glove flying right off her hand as she ran. The female's eyes widened in horror as the glove flew straight toward someone's head.

The girl winced as she stopped herself in time to hear a loud clang - the sound of violent contact between metal and bone. She looked slowly to her left to find a brown-haired male doubled over in pain…her colleague.

"I'm sorry!" the female exclaimed. She had long, straight white hair that reached her waist, and crystal-turquoise eyes. The young woman was quite lean and pale, and was rather average in terms of height for women. A beautiful, smooth yellow ribbon was tied in her hair, and evil wing wears peeked out from either sides of her head, contrasting greatly with her white hair. She also donned the Lord Knight outfit, complete with armor.

"That's…that's alright." The brown-haired male, also a Lord Knight, stood back up slowly, his voice sounding rather strained as he handed the glove back to the girl. He was tall and thin, with rather pale skin and tufty hair that only reached his ears. His eyes were an interesting light brown…almost nearing gold, which matched his sparkling, polished armor. "Just…don't do that again, Lorei."

"Lorelleli, this is the second time you've done something like this," a stern-looking Lord Knight said, frowning at the girl. "Please try to be on time so that you do not mortally injure someone before we even start exterminating monsters."

"I'm sorry sir," Lorelleli said, bowing slightly to the commander. She put her glove back on and fastened the clasps tightly so that the accident would not repeat itself. The young woman looked anxiously at her injured friend, to see him heal his wound until no mark was left.

"Now that everyone is here," the commander began, before looking once more at the list, "we shall - wait…the High Priest is still not here." An immensely displeased expression fell upon the commander's face as he frowned at the list of people who were supposed to go on the extermination. "Rillik, do you know why the High Priest is not here yet?"

"No, sir,' Rillik replied respectfully. He and Lorei looked at each other, and both sighed. There was only one High Priest they knew that would be this late, and without a proper reason, too. Another twenty minutes passed as the three Lord Knights waited uncomfortably for their High Priest companion, who had become unreasonably late. Finally, they heard faint footsteps, and turned around to see the High Priest walking lazily towards them, as though he hadn't a care in the world. Lorelelli looked at the commander, who seemed rather shocked at the High Priest's appearance.

The young man, although pretty tall, was not as tall as Rillik, and was slightly tanned. He had curly black hair that reached the base of his neck, and was quite lean, with shocking hazel eyes that contained silver flecks. However, what surprised the commander was not the young man's hair, build, nor eyes, but his attire. He was wearing a typical High Priest uniform, but his seemed to expose more chest than the usual uniform. As well, he was wearing evil wing earas, and had a ring on nearly every finger he possessed - on some fingers, even two or three rings. His cross necklace was haphazardly flung around his neck, but what the commander couldn't even believe was that the High Priest had a small earring looped through his right earlobe.

"High Priest Ethan Cerebellus," the commander said slowly and clearly after he recovered from the initial surprise, anger echoing off every syllable. "You are more than thirty minutes late for this mission. This is unacceptable. Do you have a reason, young man?"

"Mmm…" Ethan looked at his fingers and fiddled with one of his numerous rings. "I slept in?"

The two younger Lord Knights watched their leader apprehensively as he trembled with rage. "Do not think that this will not be reported to the Head Priestess, Cerebellus," he threatened in a clipped tone, before turning to the other Lord Knights - both of whom took a step backwards. "Lorelelli and Rillik…this is High Priest Ethan Cerebellus, who will be joining you two today on your mission to exterminate all the monsters in these caves. High Priestess Echello Tularien was not suitable enough for this mission last time, and so your group failed. Hopefully High Priest Cerebellus will be better." The commander adopted a disbelieving look on his face as he glanced irritably at Ethan, showing clearly that he did not think this High Priest would be any better than the last one. "High Priest Cerebellus, this is Lord Knight Lorelelli Forayda and Lord Knight Rillik Aeleialle. They will be your partners in this mission."

"Pleased," Ethan said dryly as he nodded at both of them, although he smirked somewhat when his gaze fell upon Lorelelli. The female glared at him.

"I trust that you have been informed of the details of this mission," the commander said to Ethan. "Lorelelli and Rillik have been informed as well, so I do not need to go over anything else. Are there any questions before you three leave?" No one said a word. "Alright. If anyone becomes fatally injured, be sure to abandon the mission and come straight out to a Church for healing. Good luck with the extermination." The commander gave a curt nod to the group and mounted his PecoPeco, leaving the scene. There was a pause.

"Ethan, I can't believe you were so late this time," Lorei said angrily to the High Priest. "What the hell possessed you to be forty minutes late?"

"I couldn't find one of my rings," Ethan said, shrugging.

Lorelelli sighed exasperatedly. "Who cares about one ring? You have so many that I don't even know how you can move your fingers."

"I take care of my rings and you take care of your sword," Ethan shot back, raising an eyebrow at the female Lord Knight. "Is it wrong to care for something?"

"Um," Rillik interjected, before the fight could escalate. "I think we should head into the caves."

"Right," Lorelelli murmured, flushing at the fact that she had momentarily forgotten about the mission.

"Any time," Ethan said lazily, starting to walk. However, he was stopped when Rillik thrust out an arm to obstruct his path.

"You are the High Priest," Rillik said stiffly. "You should stay in the back and let us take the front, because it is more dangerous. I do not want a repeat of last time."

The High Priest's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Don't compare me with that useless High Priestess," the male said, scoffing. "Whatever you want, but I can assure you that I don't need protection."

"Just shut up and stay in the back Ethan," Lorelelli said, annoyed, pushing past him to take the lead.

"Lorei-" Rillik began, the hints of a protest forming.

"Rillik, you do me a favor and shut up too," the white-haired woman snapped. "I'm more than capable of staying in the very front. Let me take the lead for a change."

"But-"

"Do as she says and shut up, knight," Ethan yawned as he strode past the other man. Rillik stared at the two for a moment, before running to catch up with them.

The cave they were currently in was rather small, but became bigger and more spacious as they delved deeper. The trio was alert for any sign of a monster, but surprisingly, none appeared. A faint dripping sound was heard ahead of the trio after they had walked for quite a while, undisturbed and alone.

"I wonder where all the monsters are…" Lorelelli commented uneasily, looking at her surroundings. She could only hear the dripping of water ahead and the crunching of her group's feet as they walked. There was not a sight nor sound of anything else.

"Very strange," Rillik said, nodding. "There were many monsters around here last time - so many that we could not protect Echello from them."

"Maybe they're partying somewhere else," Ethan said uncaringly. "It would save us a lot of trouble if they weren't here anymore. I have things to do today."

"Your main job is to help us on this mission," Rillik said angrily to Ethan. "Not only were you late today and dressed inappropriately, but you do not even care about the extermination of these monsters? What kind of priest are you?"

"Not a very good one at heart," Lorelelli replied, while Ethan just laughed. "Seriously Ethan, did you need to make your uniform more slutty than it already was? And what's up with that earring? I can't imagine the Head Priestess allowing _that_, when she already allowed you to wear all those ridiculous rings."

"She doesn't," Ethan answered, smirking. "I wore it to the Church the other day, but they were all so annoying that I've decided to only going to wear it outside of the Church. All my rings happen to be enchanted, Lorei…as well as this earring. Oh, and by the way, isn't the term 'slut' usually applied to females?"

"Nope, there are man-sluts," Lorelelli said flippantly.

"Aw, but I did it just for you, Lorei." Ethan sped up a bit so that he reached Lorelelli, then stopped her as he wrapped his arms around her waist, turned her so that she was facing him, and pulled her into his chest…face-forwards. "Don't you like view?" he whispered into her ear, watching as the girl's face became alarmingly red very quickly.

"Y-y-y-you m-molester!" she yelled, pushing him away, before realizing that she had been too loud. The young woman raised her sword quickly and turned around, to meet nothing but air.

"High Priest Ethan," Rillik said extremely stiffly and formally, "I request that you do not flirt or bother Lorelelli in any way during this mission."

"Why would I heed your request?" Ethan asked, raising his eyebrows as the group continued walking deeper into the cave. "But I suppose that I can lay it off a bit…I'll just bother her twice as much afterwards."

"You-" Rillik began, his voice heated, but was stopped by their female partner's gasp. The male Lord Knight and Ethan immediately snapped to attention, both realizing that they had reached a small lake inside of the cave…and that they were completely surrounded by hordes and hordes of undead, as well as water monsters.

"It was an ambush," Lorelelli said quietly, gripping the hilt of her beloved Katzbalger and running a finger along its blade. She licked her lips in anticipation.

"Being at the back is really safe," Ethan said sarcastically as he faced the monsters behind him, raising Divine Cross slightly.

"I pray that we do not fail this mission," Rillik murmured as he held his Masamune up to his face.

There was a silence.

And then, the monsters attacked.

"Ugh!" Lorelelli yelled as she used Bowling Bash repeatedly in attempts to clear out the huge mob surrounding the group. Blood splattered left and right, some landing onto her hair. "God, I hope it washes out this time…nothing worse than bloodstained hair." She parried as a monster swiped at her, then bashed it on the skull. The girl winced as Zombie Prisoner's shackle ball smashed into her arm. The blow would leave quite a dent in her armor.

"I call upon the gods to purify these wretched souls, that walk our planet endlessly with nothing but Loki's bidding to…ah, screw the speech - Magnus Exorcismus!" White, magical light pulsed from Ethan's hands and spread around the group, covering the floor beneath them. Any undead monster which stepped into the holy light was instantly hit by a multitude of holy spells, resulting its demise.

"I can't believe that these. Monsters. Ambushed. Us," Rillik grunted as he swung his sword, also bowling bashing any monster his blade could reach. He also whacked other monsters with the shield he held in his left hand, although it did not do too much damage. "When did low monsters like these gain intelligence?"

"Obviously something must be controlling them," Ethan replied, rolling his eyes as he cast lightning bolt at a Merman. He growled in annoyance as a sudden surge of Mermen leapt forwards from the lake, jabbing at him fiercely. The male stepped backwards, closed his eyes, then pointed his staff at the ground in front of him. A vivid yellow ball of light began forming quickly at the tip of the staff, before turning into an enormous crackling ball of electricity that shot upwards at the cave's ceiling. The ball exploded in the air and many smaller bolts of electricity streaked downwards towards the watery floor of the cave, shocking both the Mermen on land and the water in the lake. Most of the fish-like humanoids sizzled and dropped before everyone's eyes.

"Ethan…" Lorelelli began, panting slightly as she defended herself against some Wraiths, "where the heck did you manage to learn how to use the Lord of Vermillion spell?"

"It's a secret," Ethan replied, smiling as he cast several Magnus Exorcismuses on the ground, one after another. He then cast another Lord of Vermillion spell one more time to get rid of all the Mermen. The High Priest frowned slightly as he quickly healed his partners and blessed them; he could feel his magical power draining rather quickly from the numerous spells he had been using. "Come on you two, hurry up and kill some more. I think I've killed more monsters than both of you combined."

"Unfortunately, we don't own area spells that just happen to have the elements these monsters are most weak against," Rillik replied harshly as he slashed away at more Zombie Prisoners and Skeleton Prisoner. "However, we appreciate your tremendous help in this mission."

"Ugh, just shut up and do your job, Ethan!" Lorelelli shouted over the chaos, blocking a few attacks with her sword, then cutting down the enemies. She took a step backwards as she parried again, but accidentally tripped on a protruding rock from the cave floor and fell over. The female looked up to see three wraiths leering eerily at her, all prepared to scratch her with their long claws. It was impossible for the girl to raise her sword and slash them before they got to her, so she only had one choice left. Lorelelli grabbed the hilt of her sword and directed a small pulse of magic towards it. The sword then spun in the air very quickly and whacked all three wraiths on the head extremely hard, sparks flying from the speed at which it was traveling. The wraiths fell back, momentarily stunned. "Gosh, Hammer Fall really _is _useful," the turquoise-eyed girl muttered, getting back on her feet and swinging her sword. "I've got to thank brother one day."

"I'm getting drained of magic, guys," Ethan called over the roar of monsters. "I can't keep this up and heal you both much longer."

"Forget about us and attack," Rillik commanded, using bowling bash to clear out a huge mob. "There is less than half of the initial population of monsters now, so we should be able to kill them fairly quickly if you only use your Magnus Exorcismus spell."

"Alright." Ethan cast as many Magnus Exorcismus spells as he could, effectively killing a large portion of the monsters that were left. Lorelelli and Rillik finished off any stragglers that the holy spells did not reach, and finally, the cave was silent once more.

"You think that was all of them?" the white-head asked, looking around the cavern tiredly.

"Seems like it," Rillik replied, sitting down and sighing. He looked regretfully at his armor, which was scratched, dented, and dirty. His cape was also torn. He would have to polish his armor and fix up his cape again when he got home.

"Swordie swordie, absorb all the blood on you so that you will get stronger," Lorelelli sang, stroking the hilt of her sword lovingly. The sword did not have such abilities, but the girl liked to believe that staining the blade of her sword with more blood would make it stronger.

"Lorei Lorei, always delusional," Ethan sang at Lorelelli, smirking and sitting down. "You two will have to go get healed at the Church. I'm out."

"Although your comments were unnecessary, I thank you for your help," Rillik said uncomfortably, clearly not happy at the fact that he was thanking someone as rude as Ethan.

"Eh, I get paid." Ethan's breezy comment did nothing to lessen Rillik's annoyance.

"Well, let's hurry and go back," Rillik said, getting up. "Lorei, you should get your wounds checked first."

"I barely have any wounds, Rillik," Lorelelli scoffed. "Don't underestimate me all the time." Rillik frowned slightly at this comment, looking slightly hurt, but said nothing more. The trio took another look around the caverns before heading back out the way they came from, towards the glowing sun outside.

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A somewhat short and thin High Priestess sat in the Church, pouring over various books about herbs and medicines. She had long, curly black hair and dark brown eyes. The young woman was wearing the normal outfit for a High Priestess, and a Flower Crown was perched on top of her head with angel wing ears extending out from underneath. She heard the main doors of the Church open up, and the loud clanking of armored boots upon tiles.

"How did it go, Lorelelli?" the High Priestess asked, looking up anxiously at her Lord Knight friend. The latter smiled at the former.

"We finished the mission. The caves are safe for travel now."

"That's wonderful." The High Priestess, Echello, put down the book she had been holding. "I'm glad that the mission was accomplished this time. I'm sorry for my incompetence."

"Yes, you should be," Ethan commented, coming up from behind Lorelelli and looking disdainfully at his colleague. "It wasn't hard to get rid of them at all. I wonder how you even got your High Priestess title."

"Ethan, don't be so rude," Lorelelli growled, reaching out to punch the High Priest. He, however, caught her arm.

"Tsk, no violence in the Church my dear Lorei."

"What is the report on the mission?" The Head Priestess of the Church, an aged High Priestess, emerged from a room. "I will pass on the mission report to your commander. You two get healed first. Echello, help them."

"Yes, Head Priestess." Echello gestured for the white-haired knight to sit down and began healing the scratches she had accumulated in the fight, as well as some gashes. Rillik received treatment from a nearby Priest while informing the Head Priestess of what happened during the mission.

"Ethan," the Head Priestess said sternly, turning to the male after the report, "the commander stopped by earlier to tell me that you were unreasonably late today. You know full well that it is not acceptable to be late on a mission."

Ethan shrugged. "I don't have a reasonable excuse. What are you going to do?"

The Head Priestess scowled. "If your atrocious behavior continues, I will have to expel you from this Church." She began walking away, then paused. "By the way, take off that disgusting earring. Haven't I told you not to wear such things? Why you became a priest in the first place escapes me." She left.

The High Priest grinned and unfastened the earring he had been wearing. "What a stuffy old lady…you and I both know that you aren't going to expel me."

"I wish she would," Echello spoke up angrily as she finished healing Lorelelli. "You have the worst behavior I have ever seen in the Church. What disrespect you show to your job and our Head Priestess! You act as though you are a street scoundrel."

"Just ignore him, Echello," Lorelelli said tiredly. "That's how he's always been."

"He is a sore in our Church," the normally shy girl said fiercely. "What on earth did he do to our High Priest uniform? How shameless!"

"Oh, yeah, why _did_ you make your uniform more slutty than normal?" Lorelelli asked curiously. "You never answered back in the caves."

"You're both so conservative," Ethan laughed, not taking any offense whatsoever. "Well, every time I go outside, I always get a lot of fangirl stares from young ladies. I thought it was just my dashing good looks, but yesterday, I heard a girl and her boyfriend arguing over me."

"_Stop staring at him, Cisly! I thought I was supposed to be your boyfriend.__"_

"_You are, but he__'__s just so good-looking__…"_

"_What kind of thing is that to say in front of your boyfriend?__"_

"_Oh, come on, don__'__t you agree with me? Isn__'__t it alright for us normal-looking people to stare at the good-looking ones?__"_

"_Cisly__…"_

"_Look at his handsome face! And the way he dresses__…__I mean, he__'__s a High Priest, but he wears a bunch of rings and even an earring! Oh, I just love a rebel.__"_

"_What the hell, Cisly?__"_

"_And he__'__s so muscular too! Not the disgusting kind, but the cool kind! Hm, I wish that the High Priest uniform was more open at the front though__…"_

"_Cisly, we__'__re breaking up.__"_

"_What? Oh, come on Len, be a good sport. Len? Len!__"_

"So I took my uniform to a magical tailor. She did an awesome job, didn't she?"

There was a silence as Ethan finished his story, leaning back and smirking. He looked so arrogant that Lorelelli wanted to hit him with her sword. Unfortunately for her, they were in a Church.

"You…you…" Echello was at a loss for words, struck speechless by Ethan's attitude.

"You look prettier when you have your mouth shut," the High Priest remarked coolly to her, getting up. "I'm leaving for the day. Oh, Lorei, I might drop by later, so don't wear only your panties at home."

"What the hell Ethan!" Lorelelli yelled at the departing male's back, then got instantly shushed by four priests and an acolyte.

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"Hmm, hm…so if I put this in there…and that…what kind of effect will it have? According to this book, this new potion should be able to temporarily increase my strength." A rather short female with skin slightly tanner than peach stood in front of a table laden with alchemical objects and ingredients. Her brown, shoulder-length hair was tied up so that it was out of the way of her face, and small glasses were perched on top of her nose, although they were threatening to slip off and fall into the bubbling purple liquid in front of her. The girl narrowed her green eyes as she added some poison spores to the liquid, making it turn rather brown.

"Alright, I think it's done," the brown-haired female said brightly to the air. She put the glass vial into a nearby freezer and waited for a couple minutes, then took it back out. "Now that it's cool, all that's left is to test!" With those words, the young woman tipped back her head and drank the vial. "Hmm…tastes kind of like cabbage," she commented to herself. "Now, I should experience an increase in strength…but…but…" She collapsed to the ground, suddenly drained of all energy. "Instead, I have a massive _decrease_ in strength! Agh, what went wrong?"

The door of the room opened, and Lorelelli walked in to be greeted by the sight of her friend crawling towards another table and attempting to climb onto a chair, but failing. "Uh…Cathrene? What are you doing?"

"What!" Cathrene turned around. "Oh, hello Lorelelli. My strength-increasing potion happened to have the opposite effect, so now you see me on the floor with no energy, trying to reach the table so I can mix another potion."

"…okay." Lorelelli smiled and shook her head at Cathrene, then pulled the Biochemist onto a chair.

"Thanks Lorelelli." Cathrene grabbed some green herbs, then began mixing them with a couple other ingredients. "Hm…I don't understand…the instructions said to add mushroom spores! Where did I go wrong?"

"…" Lorelelli looked at the table, frowning. "Cathrene, aren't these poison spores?" She picked up a couple of what looked like mushroom spores and held them up to the Biochemist's eyes. The latter gasped.

"That's right! Well, of course poison spores would have caused this effect then. Silly me; I should turn the light on next time I make potions."

"Yes, you should," Lorelelli agreed, laughing a little. "Well, anyways, I brought back a bunch of lemons from the extermination."

"Have they been squished?"

"Um…possibly." Lorelelli upturned the bag she had been holding onto the table, and about a dozen lemons tumbled out. Fortunately for Cathrene, only one or two had been crushed.

"Excellent! I can use the peels of the squished ones. Thanks for your help, Lorelelli. In return, would you like a cake?"

Lorelelli flinched slightly. "Erm…did you make it?"

"Yes."

The white-haired girl took a step backwards. "N-no thanks. I've…heard stories."

Cathrene smiled and finished up the potion she was currently making. She inspected it, nodding at its bright blue color, then handed it to Lorelelli. "Can you test it out? It should work this time."

Lorelelli looked doubtfully at the potion. "You sure you put in mushroom spores this time? Ethan's coming by later, and if this potion does something bad to me, I'll get laughed at."

The Biochemist nodded. "I'm sure. The effect shouldn't last too long, anyway." Her friend took one more apprehensive look at the potion, then drank it in one gulp. "Well, how do you feel?"

"Hm…" Lorelelli walked in a circle, then picked up a goblet. "Hey, it works. I feel a lot stronger now. See?" The girl took hold of the sides of a small table and picked it up with ease. "Wow! Pretty useful."

"Great!" Cathrene triumphantly began mixing more of the potion. "I'll make some more, so stop by later to pick up a few."

"Sure thing. Thanks, Cathrene. See you later!" Lorelelli waved at the brown-haired female and left.

Cathrene waved at Lorelelli's back while swishing the contents of the vial she was holding. "Hm…I wonder if I should make that strength decreasing potion again and give it to Lorelelli to use on Ethan…"

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It would make my day if you would please drop a lovely review. However, flamers are not welcome.


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